Did Jefferson’s Rivalry With Hamilton Inspire Greatness?

Rivalries often lead to envy and bitterness, but just as often they spark industry, perseverance, creativity, and accomplishment. Rivalry can be the catalyst for greatness. Abraham Lincoln may have been the better for his intense rivalry with Stephen A. Douglas and the presence of Malcolm X may have driven Martin Luther King to greater heights. The intense rivalry between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier may have made each man a greater fighter.

The first great rivalry in American politics was that of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Both men were already accomplished public figures when they entered George Washington’s cabinet. Author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had also served as Virginia’s governor and as minister to France before becoming Washington’s Secretary of State. After winning laurels in the Revolutionary War, Hamilton attended the Constitutional Convention and wrote most of The Federalist essays before becoming Secretary of the Treasury.

At first, their relationship was cordial, but as Hamilton’s economic program unfolded, Jefferson became its leading critic. Soon, as Jefferson remarked, they were “daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks.”

Great Britain’s economic system served as a model for Hamilton. He advocated a funded economy and a national bank. A fervent nationalist, Hamilton expected his plan to further strengthen the federal government, and he hoped that a rich and powerful United States would not only be capable of defending itself against Europe’s great powers, but that it would have the muscle to expand in North America and beyond.

Waging a masterful campaign, and backed by Washington, Hamilton’s program was rapidly enacted.

Jefferson saw Hamiltonianism as leading to the Europeanization of America. He feared that it would result in growing disparities in the distribution of wealth, cause “corrupt squadrons” of officials beholden to merchants and financiers to prevail in Congress, and lead to America’s domination by a plutocracy.

At bottom, Jefferson feared that Hamiltonianism spelled the ruin of the American Revolution. For Jefferson, the American Revolution had been about spreading liberty, equality, and greater opportunities than had existed in colonial America. And that was merely the first step. He hoped it would be a “standing monument” for others to imitate. But if Hamiltonianism won out and endured, Jefferson worried that the abusive old ways would triumph and the “birthday of a new world” – as Thomas Paine called the American Revolution — would be thwarted.

Their rivalry drove each to play a key role in the establishment of America’s first political parties. Hamilton’s Federalist Party battled the Democratic-Republicans, which sought to purge the land of Hamiltonianism.

Hamilton’s ideas had gelled during the war. In 1780, at age 25, he published his thoughts in four newspaper essays. Thereafter, his outlook did not substantively change. For Jefferson, however, the rivalry transformed a distinguished individual into a greater and more important figure.

Jefferson’s ideas about reshaping America had originated before the American Revolution and deepened during his residence in the France of the ancient regime. But it was the threat posed by Hamilton that completed the shaping of his outlook and made him a partisan leader who wrote and spoke with eloquence about human freedom and the promise of the American Revolution.

Jefferson never hated his rival. He thought Hamilton “honest” and “amiable,” and referred to him as “a singular character.” At the height of their battles Jefferson called Hamilton a “colossus,” the same term he used to characterize Washington, whom he revered. But convinced that the Federalists were committed to the “abandonment of the principles of our revolution,” Jefferson waged a grand battle against Hamiltonianism. Ultimately, Jefferson was certain that he had won the fight. He saw his election to the presidency as the “revolution of 1800” and the triumph of the American Revolution in the world’s “chosen country.”

In his Inaugural Address, Jefferson pledged the “jealous care of the right of election by the people” and his commitment to an “absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority.”

In his last letter, written just before his fatal duel with Aaron Burr, Hamilton remarked that “our real Disease . . . is DEMOCRACY.” He went to his death believing that Jefferson had won.

Jefferson had vanquished his rival. But when Senator John McCain can say that today “both parties conspire to stay in office by selling the country to the highest bidder,” it appears that Jefferson’s worst fears of Hamiltonianism have been realized.